Something New...

Have you ever made something that just took your breath away? Well, I can't say that it happens to me often, but this time--it did!

I am stunned at how well this card turned out. It all started out with punched flowers. You know, the hundreds that are available at craft stores everywhere? Well, I was reading Lauren's blog a while back, on making paper flowers using assorted punches, and was so fascinated by the technique I had to try it myself. I ordered some punches from Scrappily Ever After so I could give it a whirl.

Well, yesterday, I decided to run into Michael's for a few things I needed (clothespins to organize my ribbons) and of course wandered through the whole store before I got what I came for. In the Martha Stewart aisle, I spied some of her new stuff and nearly squealed with delight when I saw two Hydrangea punches! Why was I so excited? Well, first of all, I love, love, love Hydrangeas! Especially the blue varieties. Second of all, I couldn't find a Hydrangea punch at the Scrappily Ever After store, I was just going to try to get as close as possible with what they had. So, I get both punches, (and a Martha Stewart calligraphy monogram clear stamp set--shame, shame!) and off I go. I decide to try to incorporate all of my favorite things with this Hydrangea punch. I didn't really have a plan in mind, and was just experimenting and going with my creative flow. I love watercolor almost as much as I love Hydrangeas, so I grabbed some Arches watercolor paper, scribbled some of my favorite marker colors on an acrylic block and proceed to make a background paper with random washes of color on it. I definitely recommend a sturdy paper for this technique. I've tried it with w/c paper, Papertrey Ink card stock and Bazzill and it holds up well. Sometimes the paper buckles a bit from the pressure, but this can add to the realism. The w/c paper, OTOH does not and holds it's shape beautifully.

Watercolor washes look something like this:

I used only three or four colors, so the washes wouldn't get muddy and added more to certain areas to vary intensity. OK, looked good! Then I start to punch a bunch of flowers out. Small, medium, large. Then, with a pile of flowers, and a cheap mouse pad, a round ball stylus in two sizes and my bone folder I start to emboss and shape the flowers on the reverse side.

Now this is when the WOW! factor comes in. Because of all the subtle variations in color in my water colored paper, each flower has multiple hues, shades and highlights that make them look so realistic. I'm loving this! The rest is history. I die-cut out an oval from white paper, stamp some leaves on it and start gluing the flowers in a pleasing arrangement. That done, I add some pale yellow Liquid Pearls to the centers and voila! Amazing! This is definitely a technique I am going to be using a lot of. I even ordered an instructional book called The Paper Garden to learn some more flower making techniques.
Well, I'm off to make more flowers!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Beautiful Blooms
Ink: Perfect Match, Adirondack, Printworks Designer Ink
Paper: Arches cold press w/c paper, Memory Box, PTI, vellum
Accessories: Nestabilities, Book plate die, Liquid Pearls, Tombow/CTMH markers, PTI twill ribbon, brads